Interview with Seas of Years

Seas of Years is a new Post-Rock band that comes from Sweden, and has released a great EP called Ocean Rift. Vilhelm Andersson (bass, guitar) and Calle Sjöström (drums) talk about their influences, feelings and other things.

Metalship : Hello Seas of Years!
First, what initially gave you guys the inspiration to form the band?

Calle: Hello! A couple of years my friend Patrik (now guitarist in the band) introduced me to a lot of acts that I had never heard of. Bands like Caspian, This Will Destroy You, Jakob and such. I fell in love with this style of music called post rock and we deicied to form a band within that style. To play something new and fresh and not just start another metal band. We have all played in various metal bands so we felt that this band was bound to have another direction and that direction was post rock. Last year (2012) I met Jari at a party at Vilhelm's place and he was interested in playing post rock and here we are.

Metalship : I've seen that you initially called the band Ocean Rift... What is the origin of the band name and why choosing Seas of Years?

Vilhelm: When we started the band we talked a lot of the concept around the band and what kind of names would fit. The first songs we wrote had a kind of maritime feeling to them, so we all searched for a fitting name in that vein. Eventually I came up with the name Ocean Rift; deriving from the phenomenom called 'sea rift' which it can be described as when the tectonic plates grinds towards each other, forming new crust and lithosphere where the plates move apart. Ocean Rift therefore refers to the sound that this causes on the sea floor - vibrations and motions in the depth of the Earth.

The name stuck for a while, but we felt that it wasn't a final name for the band. Eventually I stumbled across the expression "seas of years" in a poem, and it just felt right as a metaphor for us - an ocean of time, a wide-streched time span or the eternity it had taken us to find the right circumstances to form a band like this. We then decided to use the already worked-in name Ocean Rift for the first EP instead. It worked well as a metaphor for great structures that move apart or grow inwards, together.

Metalship : How would you describe the genre of your band?

Calle: I would like to say that it is post rock with a slight touch of metallic epicness. But we don't want to sound like a melodic doom-metal band or something like that. Our guitarist Jari already play that kind of style with his other band Enshine so our main goal is to play post rock with a lot of feeling, melodies and with very little influences from metal just to challenge ourselves.

Vilhelm: When we started the band none of us had any experience of playing this kind of music as a band concept. People say that when they listen to our music, they get a lot of visions what the instruments mediate, how the music can tell stories without words. That's another reason why we wanted to keep the music instrumental, so the listeners can have their own vision of what the music is representing, instead of letting lyrics and a voice acting the thematic lead. The song titles are there as guidelines and our own associations to the material.

Metalship : Do you have a main song writer or does everybody contribute their parts?

Calle: The others in the band all contribute with song ideas and guitar parts. I can't play guitar even if my life would depend on it, so I focus on the drum parts and some song arrangement suggestions. We jam the songs together in our studio/rehearsal room until we're all satisified. So we don't have a main songwriter, but Jari, acting as our producer as well, has the final say in what will work out in the end. He is not some kind of dictator or anything, just a very experienced person when it comes to recording and working with music arrangments.

Metalship : What kind of music do you guys find inspiration from outside of metal, or just enjoy listening to?

Calle: I would say that we take very little inspiration from metal. Some of us still listen to metal a lot, but I'd say it's not a direct inspiration when we write music for Seas of Years. We find inspiration from bands like Caspian, The End Of The Ocean, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Red Sparowes for example. And our intentions are, mark my words, not to sound like, but get inspired by artists like those. Bands like Katatonia, Opeth and Alcest are some other acts that linger in the background, since they're all old favourites to us.

Vilhelm: Yes, we are very proud that our first EP is on its way! The first months when we started to jam we gathered a lot of inspiration from within the genre, exchanging favourite acts as well as searching for new ones. We checked up labels where some big names found their home within the genre, and among them was Weary Bird Records, where the mighty Wang Wen was signed. The Seas of Years members joked a bit, and said something like "this would really be a cool label to end up on when we have our material out!" and in the spring 2013 we got contacted by an agent working for the label! This person had already been involved in the signing of Jari's other project Enshine and he set us up for this deal with WBR. We couldn't be more happy with this, it feels like a dream come true. The first pressing is set to 500 copies!

Metalship : As an artist, I think you want to release your best stuff. Are you completely satisfied with the EP or is there something you would have done different?

Vilhelm: Well, being our first release and all, I think we're very happy with this piece. The writing process has been very democratic within the band and the environment for creating something like this, has been fantastic. Everybody put their very soul into the process and contributed with small additions within their field. The artwork from Ocean Rift was made by Patrik, who apart from being a kickass guitar player, also is a skilled artist when it comes to illustration! We actually had a fifth song written at the time for the first EP, but it's been saved away for future deeds! The downside when you make an EP is that you always want more songs, so the only negative thing about Ocean Rift in my opinion is maybe that this was a short record that left you longing for more. Fortunately we are working on a new album at the moment and new ideas keep coming!

Metalship : What's coming up for the following year?

Vilhelm: We are at the moment waiting for Weary Bird Records to start pressing Ocean Rift so that the physical edition of the EP can see the light of day. And, as I mentioned earlier, we have written more material for a future release; five very strong songs (and many more soundscape sketches) so far are ready for a second EP or possibly a full length and when we feel satisfied with the arrangements, we'll start recording for real. It feels like it's not too far away when we can let you hear some new post rock tunes! When that production is ready, we'll most likely start to get into playing live. The request of playing live has been around for some time now and we're quite eager to step into the light and deliver our music in front of an audience, here in Stockholm or abroad.

Metalship : Thank you guys! And now the last words belong to you.

We are most thankful in return! Check us out on http://www.seasofyears.bandcamp.com and listen to the EP for free, you can also buy the album there online and support the band directly. Give us a like on Facebook, share our page and help us to reach out to new listeners or send us some feedback on Ocean Rift! Facebook is also where we provide the latest news about the band and the songwriting process. Over and out across the sea!

Did you know ?
Pillar was the winners of The Dove Awards "Hard Music Album of the Year" in 2001 and 2003. They were also the winners of "Hard Music Recorded Song of the Year" in 2002 - More info about Pillar